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On 11/1/18 11:59 AM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:
In reply to Richard Fidler: All too many socialists define the issue as being the building of a "party of the left" or of a "mass socialist party". That is the completely wrong way of looking at the matter. The issue simply is that all political parties are based on one class or another. The Republicans and Democrats are capitalist parties. The working class has no party of its own. Again, to emphasize: What is needed is a *party based on the working class.* That is the way to look at the matter. John Reimann
John, in class terms, what would be the difference between the Greens and the DSA if the DSA decided to run as socialists rather than back the DP? There is no difference. They are made up primarily of white-collar wage workers, professionals and petty proprietors.
If you define working class as the traditional blue-collar, assembly-line type positions that were at the forefront of the CIO organizing drives and who joined the CPUSA in the 1930s, there is no sign of any equivalence today. People who are ready to start a new party tend to be school teachers, web developers, nurses, social workers, etc. These are not only the people who join the DSA or the GPUSA today but who also joined the Trotskyist movement in the 1960s and 70s.
Nothing would make me happier than to discover that a bunch of rank-and-file steelworkers had decided to start a new party but it will take years and years of class confrontation to see anything like that happening. Essentially, you are supporting a good idea that has no basis in objective conditions.
Revolutionary organizations that have tried to build parties "based in the working class" have come up empty. There are many explanations for this that have mostly to do with the post-WWII economic situation but going into it in any kind of detail would take some time to do right. I don't have that time right now, maybe later.
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